How to Install Debian 13 (Trixie) — Complete Step-by-Step Guide

✅ Debian 13 "Trixie" — Released August 9, 2025 · Current version: 13.5 (May 2026)

Debian 13 Trixie is the current stable release of Debian, shipping Linux kernel 6.12 LTS, GNOME 48, and over 14,100 new packages compared to Debian 12. It adds RISC-V (riscv64) as an officially supported architecture for the first time and drops i386 as a regular architecture. This guide covers a clean installation of Debian 13 on amd64 hardware.

Table of Contents

• Why Choose Debian 13
• What is New in Trixie
• System Requirements
• Download Debian 13 ISO
• Create Bootable USB
• Installation Steps
• Post-Installation Setup
• Essential apt Commands
• Enable Non-Free Firmware and Drivers
• Upgrade from Debian 12
• Troubleshooting FAQ

Why Choose Debian 13

Debian is the distribution that underpins Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Raspberry Pi OS, Kali Linux, and hundreds of other distros. Choosing Debian directly gives you a rock-solid base without any vendor customizations, a massive package repository (over 59,000 packages in Trixie), and a release cycle built around stability rather than features.

• Stability: Debian stable is conservative by design. Packages are frozen and only receive security updates — no surprise version changes after release.
• Longevity: Debian 13 receives 5 years of support (3 years full + 2 years LTS via the Debian LTS team), making it suitable for servers and workstations alike.
• Universal: Runs on amd64, arm64, armhf, armel, ppc64el, riscv64, and s390x — more architectures than almost any other major distro.
• Package quality: Every package in Debian is reviewed, patched, and maintained by a dedicated maintainer. Nothing enters stable untested.

What is New in Debian 13 Trixie

Linux Kernel 6.12 LTS

Debian 13 ships the 6.12 LTS kernel — a long-term support kernel with improved hardware support for recent AMD and Intel generations, better power management on laptops, and improved NVMe and networking performance. For servers, the 6.12 kernel brings improvements to io_uring and BPF that matter for high-throughput workloads.

Updated Desktop Environments

RISC-V Support

Debian 13 is the first Debian release to officially support riscv64 (RISC-V 64-bit). If you have a RISC-V development board (SiFive, StarFive, Milk-V), Trixie is the first stable Debian you can run on it with full official support.

Secure Boot with systemd-boot

Trixie adds Secure Boot support via systemd-boot as an alternative to GRUB. For users who need Secure Boot on modern hardware, this provides a cleaner and faster boot path than the traditional GRUB + shim combination.

Architecture Changes

• i386 removed as a regular architecture. 32-bit x86 hardware is no longer supported as a primary target. Some 32-bit libraries remain available for running 32-bit applications on amd64 (via multiarch).
• armel is supported in Trixie but this will be its final Debian release.
• riscv64 added as a fully supported architecture.

Package Updates

• 14,100+ new packages added vs Debian 12
• 8,840 obsolete packages removed
• 44,326 packages updated
• OpenLDAP now uses OpenSSL instead of GnuTLS for TLS
• Disk partitioner now defaults to GB instead of MB
• Installation available in 78 languages

System Requirements

Debian is notably more frugal than Ubuntu. A Debian server installation with no desktop runs comfortably in 512 MB of RAM. The minimums above are real — Debian 13 boots on hardware that cannot run Ubuntu 26.04.

Download Debian 13 ISO

Debian offers several ISO types. For a new installation on a machine with internet access, the netinst image is recommended — it is small (700 MB) and downloads only the packages you actually need during installation.

# Netinstall (recommended) — ~700 MB, downloads packages during install
wget https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-13.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso

# Full DVD image (offline install) — ~4 GB
wget https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-dvd/debian-13.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso

# Verify SHA512 checksum
sha512sum debian-13.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso

Compare the output against the SHA512SUMS file listed on the official Debian download page. A mismatch means a corrupted download — do not install a corrupted ISO.

Non-Free Firmware ISO

If you have hardware that requires proprietary firmware (most NVIDIA cards, many Wi-Fi adapters, some Intel and AMD components), download the non-free firmware image instead. Since Debian 12, this variant is available on the official download page and is the recommended choice for most desktop users.

# Netinstall with non-free firmware included — use this for most desktop hardware
wget https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/current/amd64/iso-cd/firmware-13.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso

Create Bootable USB

# On Linux — find your USB device first
lsblk

# Write the ISO (replace /dev/sdX with your actual device — NOT a partition)
sudo dd if=debian-13.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync

On Windows, use Rufus in DD image mode. On macOS, use Balena Etcher or dd from the terminal.

Installation Steps

The Debian installer (d-i) is text-based by default in the netinst image. A graphical installer is also available from the boot menu. Both produce identical results.

1. Boot and Choose Installer Type

Boot from the USB. At the boot menu, select Graphical install for a mouse-driven interface, or Install for the keyboard-driven text mode. Both work equally well.

2. Language, Location, Keyboard

Select your language, country, and keyboard layout. The language selection affects the default locale (date format, number separators) and the installer's own language.

3. Network Configuration

The netinst installer requires internet access to download packages. Connect via Ethernet for a reliable installation. If you only have Wi-Fi and your adapter requires firmware, use the non-free firmware ISO — the installer will detect and load the firmware automatically.

4. Set Up Users and Passwords

Debian creates a root account and a regular user account separately. Set a strong root password — this is the system administrator account with full privileges. Then create your personal user account.

If you prefer sudo-based administration (like Ubuntu), leave the root password blank during installation. This disables the root account and adds your user to the sudo group automatically.

5. Disk Partitioning

For a clean install on a dedicated disk, select Guided — use entire disk. The installer creates:

• EFI system partition (538 MB) — UEFI only
• /boot — 1 GB
• / — remaining space (ext4 by default, Btrfs available)
• swap — based on your RAM size

Note that in Trixie the disk partitioner now shows sizes in GB instead of MB — a long-overdue usability improvement.

6. Select Software

The tasksel screen lets you choose what to install:

For a server, deselect all desktop options and select only SSH server and Standard system utilities.

7. Install GRUB

Install GRUB to the primary disk (the disk you are installing Debian on). On UEFI systems, GRUB installs to the EFI partition automatically. On legacy BIOS, select the disk device (e.g., /dev/sda), not a partition.

8. Reboot

Remove the USB when prompted and reboot. Debian boots to the login screen (or console, for server installations).

Post-Installation Setup

Add Your User to sudo

If you set a root password during installation, your user is not in the sudo group by default. Fix this:

# Switch to root
su -

# Add your user to sudo group (replace "youruser" with your actual username)
usermod -aG sudo youruser

# Log out and back in for the change to take effect

Update the System

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install Essential Tools

sudo apt install -y 
  build-essential git curl wget 
  python3-pip python3-venv 
  htop vim tmux 
  ufw

Enable Non-Free Firmware and Drivers

Debian's official repository contains only free software. Non-free firmware (NVIDIA, Wi-Fi adapters, audio DSP) lives in the non-free-firmware component, which since Debian 12 is enabled by default if you used the firmware ISO. Verify your sources.list:

cat /etc/apt/sources.list

It should include non-free-firmware (and optionally contrib non-free for other non-free packages):

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security trixie-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

NVIDIA Drivers

# With non-free enabled, install NVIDIA driver
sudo apt install nvidia-driver firmware-misc-nonfree

# Reboot to load the driver
sudo reboot

Wi-Fi Firmware

# Intel Wi-Fi (most laptops)sudo apt install firmware-iwlwifi# Broadcom Wi-Fisudo apt install firmware-brcm80211# Realtek (common in USB adapters)sudo apt install firmware-realtek# Reload the module after installing firmwaresudo modprobe -r iwlwifi && sudo modprobe iwlwifi

Essential apt Commands

Upgrade from Debian 12

# 1. Update Debian 12 fully before upgrading
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt full-upgrade -y

# 2. Change the sources to trixie
sudo sed -i 's/bookworm/trixie/g' /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo sed -i 's/bookworm/trixie/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list

# 3. Update the package list
sudo apt update

# 4. Run the full upgrade
sudo apt full-upgrade

# 5. Reboot
sudo reboot

The upgrade process is well-tested and generally smooth. Allow several hours for a desktop system — package downloads are significant. Do the upgrade in a tmux or screen session in case your SSH connection drops.

Troubleshooting FAQ

Wi-Fi not detected after installation

# Check if the firmware is missing
dmesg | grep -i firmware

# Check which Wi-Fi chip you have
lspci | grep -i wireless
lsusb | grep -i wireless

# Install the appropriate firmware package (see section above)
sudo apt install firmware-iwlwifi   # Intel
sudo apt install firmware-realtek   # Realtek

No sound after installation

# Check if PipeWire is running (default in Trixie)
systemctl --user status pipewire

# List audio devices
pactl list sinks short

# Restart PipeWire
systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse

GNOME is too slow on my hardware

GNOME 48 on Debian requires a reasonably modern GPU for smooth compositing. If you have older or weaker hardware, install Xfce instead: